Hi A quick back story - My husband and I bought our yellow girl as a companion for our then 1 year old black lab and of course ourselves. The issue of when we got her was that we were due to move to a new town a month later which became troublesome as she spent a week in a kennel with our boy. Money was short as we only had one income at the time and we opted to ensure all of her vaccinations were up to date and that their food was up to their usual standard rather than taking her to puppy preschool. Instead we socialised her in public with other dogs and trained her ourselves. I feel this may have been where we went wrong. She is now 2 years old and plays well with other dogs but if restrained or cannot get to the other dog because of a fence or barrier she will begin to bark and pull on her lead. My vet, after telling her of my embarassment in the waiting room advised I should teach her to look on command. This something I have toyed with however will be committing to teaching both dogs. I was ultimately hoping for some other suggestions or success stories of those who may have experienced something similiar with their labs as it's becoming old having to explain to everyone she comes in contact with "she is friendly! Just very excited!" I am also looking to incorporate a clicker into her training regime as she is probably considered excitable by nature. Im hoping that by using a clicker she will here the same consistent tone and know that she has done good rather than me being excited for her and praising her for good behaviour. Again any help would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you - Kim
You describe Coco perfectly. I don't know how his puppy socialisastion went as he was 16 months old when we got him, but I don't think missing out on puppy preschool has much to do with it. I don't know the easy answer. Exposing the dog to others at distances they can manage. I did start trying this, click when my dog looks at another dog then reward as he automatically turns to me to get his click treat, but I struggled to find suitable places with appropriate distance to dogs. "Look At That" is a good way to do it, ultimately the dog looks at the distraction, then turns to you. We have been going to a group class, Coco was a total nightmare for weeks, barking and lunging to get to the other dogs, but our dogged determination has gradually reduced this. We just keep on going to class, exposing him to dogs on lead, and try to keep Coco's attention on the handler (OH), by waving a suitable lure about - food/toy. He is a lot better now, but it has been very slow and sometimes painful.
Thanks for your reply. I would not have thought to sit afar in public and reward her. That's a good idea - if only I can overcome the same issue you had with finding somewhere to go. Would it be wrong to sit and watch a dog agility class that happens every Saturday lol The group thing is definitely something we want to try out. That's something my husband can do when he gets back home in 3 weeks - figure she can embarrass him instead and he handles stressful situations better than me. But your story really increased my confidence with Sadie! She is eager to please and is a quick learner when we set our mind to it. Thanks again! Hopefully we will get stuck into clicker training as early as Saturday! *fingers crossed*
Sadie sounds like a typical happy go lucky labrador Young labradors just want to be everyone's friend and get hugely excited when they see other dogs. I have a chocolate labrador like that, when he was younger, it was an enormous challenge, so I understand how you must feel. It does sound like there is an element of excited frustration creeping into her behaviour, demonstrated by the lunging/pulling when she meets other dogs, she wants to play, but doesn't understand why she can't. It sounds like she has lovely manners when she does meet them off lead and has the opportunity to interact, so all good there. It is a case of helping her manage her arousal when on the lead . Sadie expects to play with every dog she meets, her behaviour suggests this, and this may be the crux of the issue, her expectations need to be changed. Here are a couple of things to try which may help, just in my opinion, and I am no expert! Firstly, what is her recall like? I would work on when off lead, getting a really, really good recall, to the point of recall away from opportunities to play with other dogs, make "you" more interesting with games, hide and seek and mega high value treats. Aim for engaging off lead with 1 out of every 4 dogs you meet. This changes Sadie's expectation in a fun way that she doesn't need to engage with every dog she meets. When on lead, distance is your friend, work initially at a distance when she notices the other dog, however, she is not over her excitement threshold. When Sadie glances at the other dog, then looks back at you, mark this behaviour (with a clicker or verbal marker) and treat. I prefer to do this on the the move with a young dog, as sitting still can be quite hard for them, so walking up and down, playing games etc... works for me. You can also check her arousal levels at this point by asking for quite simple behaviours, a hand touch, paw..sit..etc..if she can do these she is fairly comfortable. When she can't manage these, either lower the criteria (difficulty level) or increase distance from the other dog. Finally, see if you can search for adolescent classes locally, designed to help specifically those behaviours you are looking to address. Other classes such as clicker classes, etc.. might be useful at this stage. Good luck and keep us posted!
Hello and welcome to the forum. I use the "Look at That!" technique from the book Control Unleashed. Buy it, it's brilliant I made a little video of using it with my puppy, who is super friendly and wants to say hi to everyone. https://thislittledoggy.com/2017/02/23/impulse-control-ignoring-people/
Okay first of all - Luna is beautiful and makes me want to complete the set with a chocolate! But I will certainly look into that book since our stubborn boy could probably use some structure when it comes to listening. Sadie has good recall provided she isn't running after other dogs which all in all I'm incredibly proud of. Like I said before she is eager to please and it's on of the things I love about her. But all great advice - wishing I had of posted earlier to be honest! Will be heading out this weekend for sure - heres hoping I have some news to report within the next week or so. That's how confident I am with my little yellow bundle of joy!
We were on the beach this morning playing fetch - a couple with a dog arrived at the other end. Coco didn't chase, he returned to me with the ball. They were nearly half a mile away ! Small steps.
Hi Kim, Lucky was like this when we got him. We tried a few things, but what worked for us is the same as other people described, start a good distance away, give a click and reward for looking at the other dog, eventually they work it out and start looking at you automatically, and then you can move a bit closer and can stop rewarding the looking at the dog, and reward the looking back at you. The problem we had was being consistent. If there was one incident where he went crazy on the lead, we'd take a few steps back. In the end I bought a dog treat in a tube, I'm in Germany so I'm not sure what brands you have in the UK, but it's basically pate in a tube! So, I carried my tube of pate everywhere, and every time we saw another dog on lead, we played "dog, pate, dog, pate". Now, he is fine most of the time, and sometimes I don't need to use food rewards. The only problem we have is if the other dog is coming right at him to say hello, but it's a work in progress. Good work Coco on the beach! I think Lucky would have been a tiny speck half a mile away
